The Virginia opossum is North America’s only marsupial, and it is not a California native. Its 10330 records here map an introduced animal that has made itself thoroughly at home, with Los Angeles and San Diego counties leading a record that follows the state’s settled, watered lowlands from the Mexican border to the Bay Area and up the Central Valley.
A settler that moved west
Opossums were brought to California in the early twentieth century, released deliberately and spreading outward from towns and farms. They are habitat generalists that do best near water and human settlement, eating insects, fruit, carrion, eggs, and whatever a garden or garbage can provides, and they den in woodpiles, culverts, and spaces under buildings. That flexibility is written across the record, from Cleveland National Forest and Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area in the south to Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area farther north. Cold high country and the driest desert remain their limits.
A pouch full of spring
Reports arrive in every month, but they crest sharply in April. Opossums breed through the mild California winter and spring, and by April the first litters have outgrown the pouch and ride their mother’s back, a sight that turns a commonplace backyard animal into a notable one. Mothers can carry a dozen young at once, which may be the only time this solitary, nocturnal animal appears in a crowd.
Status in California
The opossum is introduced in California, and NatureServe flags it as exotic in the state, assigning it SNA, Not Applicable, rather than a conservation rank. Globally the species is secure, and its California population needs no help holding on.
Full species profile
